Continuing the Van Trip: Shenandoah National Park, Biking the C&O Canal and Philadephia

Last we left you, we had just spent two weeks exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway.

So let’s pick up where we left off, which was literally heading across the street and entering the Skyline Drive, part of Shenandoah National Park and then heading east.

First, the video version:

Shenandoah National Park

Once you exit the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, you pretty much cross right into the Shenandoah National Park – and continue the journey along Skyline Drive.

This is no accident, the Blue Ridge Parkway was specifically created to connect the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to Shenandoah.

The driving is pretty much more of the same – amazing windy curvy roads with gorgeous mountain overlooks. Just at 35 mph instead of 45.

There are four campgrounds within the park, and we selected to stay at two. Our first was Loft Mountain, which had lots of huge pull through spots for just $15/night (no hook-ups). It was lovely, and we even got a load of laundry in at their onsite super clean laundromat.

And then we moved on to Big Meadow, which is the bigger main village of the park with a lodge, gas station, dining and visitor’s center. We opted to prepay for two nights here at $20/night feeling the need for a bit of a driving break, but ended up bailing after the first night – it was just too bustling for the vibe we were seeking.

We escaped the full campground in the evening and found a nice overlook at the onsite tavern to snag a glass (cup?) of wine, blackberry ice cream and a scrumptious gluten free chocolate cake – with a sunset view. Much better than listening to a cacophony of vacation campground noises all around us.

After over 2 weeks of exploring the mountains, we were ready for returning to civilization and making some more miles for some upcoming planned meetups in New England.

Brunswick, MD – C&O Canal

As much as we loved the parkway, one thing lacking was biking trails – and we were craving getting our eJoe Epik Swans out for some exploring.

So we searched for a campground along the C&O Canal tow path – which runs from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD. We found Brunswick Family Campground that met the criteria, and they had online booking with wide open availability for sites for right along the Potomac River.

Upon arrival we had the eerie feeling of having been here before – and sure enough during our bus hunt 10 years ago in our borrowed Le’Sharo – we had overnighted in this exact location.

The campground is ok enough, although our site was quite unlevel – we got to put the range of our Flat-Jack air levelers to the test by fully inflating them.

But our goal here was biking along the C&O Canals towpath, and it was amazing – a perfect trail. We pedaled several miles in each direction putting over 30 miles on the bikes in 2 days, including visiting historic locks and a lunch visit to the historic town of Harpers Ferry.

Philadelphia

Next up, was a visit with a dear friend who we hadn’t seen in way too long and some urban street camping in front of her house.

I met Barb when I lived in Florida nearly 20 years ago, and she was the very first nomad I ever met – living on a sailboat. She ended up settling in Philly and pursued her art passions. We’re blessed to have met up all over the country over the past many years, one of those rare friendships that you realize has a lifetime connection no matter the miles.

It was great to catch up since our last visit a few years back, and see a peak at her current project of coordinating the Tacony LAB – a community art school & lab.

We were thankful she was able to toss us a power cord – because the temps spiked up near 100 degrees. Quite a shock after weeks in fall like weather at higher elevation.

Our Travato GL is excellent for autonomy (we can run the AC off battery for about 6 hours or so). And we could have just run the engine a couple hours each day to top up the batteries – but a cord was so much more neighborly.

Real Time Update

Whew.. I’m reminded why trying to do travelogues while actively traveling is tough.

This was actually almost 6 weeks ago, and we have so much more to catch up on – New York City, New England and our trip west!  We are so behind, so will likely continue these quick update style to speed things along.

We’ll be arriving to the St. Louis area later this week for a couple weeks of family and downtime. Which we’re much in need of. It’s now been 2 months since we left Florida, and it’s been amazing – but this balancing work, constant travel and fun stuff is a challenge.

We have lots of work to catch up on, and many videos to produce.

We haven’t decided what is next after St. Louis – and will determine that after seeing how the tropics behave and if we need to return to Florida.

But we are eyeing continuing on to Arizona (with perhaps a stop in Colorado on the way) to see Zephyr before we return to the boat later this year.